A Good Morning, Rain or Shine

Woke up early to grey skies and a want for good food and a walk in the drizzle...

We wound up at Bouchon Bakery for pistachio citrus brioche and financiers.

A walk down the street lead us to Bistro Jeanty which was great for a picture but shhh...

I don't actually like traditional French food, so we wandered on...


These beautiful lettuces sprouting deep burgundy and citron green drew us into the French Laundry's Gardens...


We took pictures of our morning vacation...

And ended our sejour at Dean & Deluca for a tin of Kusmi tea to enjoy at home.

Spring

I visited my friend Ellen and came home with a armful of beautiful flowers! This bunch of tulips in one of my antique tea pots is one of my favorites...so spring!

Cake Box Book

Made this Cake Box Book as seen in Esther K. Smith's How to Make Books.  I love the look of using this vintage looking yellow cake mix...so 1950's! I of course considered making a book of the funfetti style cake for MJ since that's her favorite cake mix, but I didn't like the box. 

I used kraft paper, a cake mix yellow paper, and old school ruled newsprint paper (the kind I hated using when I was a kid). I bound the book with red and white baker's twine.

I love how the stitches look on the spine.

Voila! A Cake box book!

New Workshops

I am happy to announce I will be teaching workshops out of my studio at the Napa House. Check out the Napa House Blog for a class schedule!!! Coming up on Sunday February 22nd, I am offering a class in image transfer techniques for collage and paper arts. I will also be creating a Spring Schedule of new classes at the^workshop in Berkeley shortly. I have a renewed sense of purpose after the past few weeks of not wanting to even be at my house, let alone making anything. I hope to kick of the new year in February since January wasn't a proper send off into 2009. Hope this surge will last!!!!

New Project

My mom bought me this chair for a reading chair in my bedroom. I love the style but despise the fabric. Last night, as it sat in my living room, and as I sat staring at I decided I would try to recover it myself. I didn't decide this all at once. At first I just ripped off the trim to see what was underneath, then all of a sudden I was searching for fabric then draping and hammering. Within a hour or so I had recovered the top of the chair. The fabric is a natural linen with diamonds silk screened on top. Now I just have to finish the bottom and I might fabric paint the sides instead of recovering them. I think I did a pretty good job to start, I just have to carry it through to finish the chair!

Pumpkining, a Grand Opening and a New House

A busy, busy week. The Grand Opening at Maison Reve finally happened yesterday after so much hard work and long nights from our entire staff. Aaron and I signed a lease for our new house (more pics to come) after a couple of weeks of stress and worry, and we took the girls to the pumpkin patch (which was great). I am excited and exhausted!

Pumpkining

YEA!!!! Its October and I could hardly wait for the month to start so that I could go "pumpkining" (my favorite Fall time activity). We went to a Stanly Lane Marketplace in Napa which was beautiful! They have a pyramid and a maze built from hay, as well as pigs and cows.
Although the pumpkins are not grown there, the setting is picturesque and the variety is pretty good! I can't wait to carve some of these and make pumpkin soup!